Pleasure boating has long been a popular outdoor activity. The boats, ranging from racers, sail boats and yachts, may be moored at various marine docks owned by restaurants, seaside resorts, as well as public and private marinas.
Even though it is common for a pleasure boat to incorporate a rub rail about the top edge of the hull and about the perimeter of the deck, the rub rail is not designed to take the full impact of many bumps encountered against dock posts. Consequently, the dock posts need to have a protective bumper or cushion to protect the boat in conjunction with the rub rail.
Many bumper systems have been developed. Rubber pads that are secured by screws, stakes or nails are often ripped from their fastened position because of the high stresses exerted on the rubber pads about the nail or screw head.
Fenders or portable bumpers have been developed that are mounted on the boat. The disadvantage to these portable systems is two fold. Firstly, in order to be effective, the bumper has to be correctly positioned such that the dock post hits the boat at the fender. It is no easy task to predict where to correctly place the bumper on the boat. Secondly, the boat fender must be transported with the boat during its entire voyage as unnecessary and unused cargo.
Packaging, cushions, carpeting and even corrugated cardboard have been strapped to the dock posts with duct tape in attempts to provide protection to the moored boat. These temporary solutions, however, rapidly degrade and quickly become unsightly.
Many private and commercial marinas also provide tie lines for boats. The dock posts, when properly installed with the dock, commonly extend above the walking surface of the dock. These upper portions of the dock post commonly have one end of the tie line permanently fastened thereto. When the tie line is released from the boat, the tie line is thrown onto the walk surface of the dock, which gets in the way of people, or is thrown into the water. The water, particularly salt water, will cause rapid degeneration of the tie line. Furthermore, it is often inconvenient, when re-docking the boat for a mate to reach down below the walk surface of the dock to retrieve the tie line.
What is needed is a durable yet convenient dock protective cushion that incorporates a hook device for storing the boat tie line.